Clap If You Believe
by SakuraSan89
Summary: The Christian God is missing, at least ten ancient Pagan Deities are dead, America has had an amazing increase in supernatural activity...and no one's noticed? Enough is enough, it's time to send some back-up to America!  May become M  eventually x-over
1. Chapter 1

Eyes scanned over report after report after report; each one causing greater concern for the small toddler who pawed over them. The truth was that he had been noticing these slight differences, dissapearances and occurrences these were speaking of for quite some time, but something about seeing it on paper, absolute fact, bothered him more than any other case he's looked over before, yes...even the tunnel incident.

One in particular caught his attentions though, and after reading it for what seemed like the hundredth time, and it still didn't make sense, the baby pressed the small red button next to him.

"Yes sir, what is it?" A voice, which sounded as if it was the incarnation of fright and depression, called through the little speaker above said red button.

When nothing but silence answered him, the voice switched from depression to anxiety, "I'll go send her in then..."

Not even one minute went by before a blur of blue flew by the toddler only to knock over the stack of files, spilling many of them onto the floor. The blue blur couldn't help but take a quick glance down, only to be horrified by a gruesome picture of a decapitated Paris Hilton with the name Leshii next to it.

"Botan..." The blue blur jumped at the toddler's tone, it was the same one he got whenever he was actually worried, and not just scared of getting in trouble, (not that it was really an issue anymore), but just plain worried.

"Go get them...I don't care what you have to do to bring them, tell them they're temporarily rehired...or tell them I'll give them something...just get them here...and now."

Without another word, Botan ran out of the room to begin her journey of finding everyone.

* * *

><p>"Yuusuke, that move is called cheating..."<p>

A glance at the red head showed his tone was more cautionary than annoyed as green eyes watched the dark haired male yet still seemed to take in the whole table. The game was Gin Rummy and other than the two of them, Kuwabara and a newer acquaintance named Sakura were also playing. They filled the seats around the circular table and the all sorts of bags of chips and other junk food covered the surface until you could barely make out there even was a tablecloth.

Standing close behind Kurama, another female studied the game to learn how to play. Kiera was a friend from many years before and newly back after a prolonged absence. It was a good thing Kurama had caught that move. Kiera wouldn't have known otherwise it was illegal to the game. Of course...Kurama usually caught everything that was going on, and sometimes figured out a little of what may happen next, whatever the situation. She grinned after piecing together what made that particular action cheating, glad to be back with her friends.

The fox girl had grown a small bit since she had last seen everyone, and what was a bit more noticeable now was that her ears and tail had begun to lighten from a coppery red to a lighter orange. It was not significant, but it could be seen best at the base of her ears and tail. Her hair was still long, but she kept it together in a loose ponytail to avoid having the most of it over her shoulders or in her face. Her tail occasionally moved while she observed the game, but otherwise was fairly still.

Kiera had taken a time away from everyone to search for her foster families from her childhood, hoping to find information on her true mother and father, and where they might have come from before their untimely deaths. So far though, she had found little that was helpful. It was a given that being demons, they would have come from the Makai, but now that she had time to really ponder it in depth, she was finding no answer for the reason behind coming to the human world at all. It was a mystery she hoped to solve sooner rather than later.

Her skill in combat though had improved quite a bit. The wisdom to use the skill though was still developing, and needed heavy practice. That, she had been told, would come in time as she fought and was defeated, and learned from mistakes.

Following the wall behind the other red head, there was a steel door painted dark brown that led out into the hall and then the kitchen. There was no door, just an opening where one could fit, and through the tiny space was a single window on the far wall with another table beneath it. This one held only two chairs, both also occupied. Both were female, one in her mid 20s and the other much younger at about 12. Both were brunette's but the younger's hair was much darker and shorter and she had bright blur-green eyes compared to the older's brown. The older one, Sora, was holding up flash cards with months written in kanji as the smaller girl recited them.

["You're doing great Tanya,"] the elder female said as she laid down the card she held in the mistake pile. It was much smaller now than it had been when they'd started this morning. ["New languages aren't easy, but you'll get it."] A smile accompanied the statements spoken in English.

A loud sound made them both turn to look out of the kitchen but someone had just popped a bag of chips, and caused half the bag to end up on the floor. Sora stood and reached into the pantry fror the broom and long-handled dustpan before heading out to the players. Her eyes gazed over the whole setting as she crossed the couple feet from the kitchen doorway to the table.

The kitchen wall jut out into the space a couple feet so the area opened up as you headed away from the main door. Along the same wall as the kitchen, after a larger television pushed into the awkward corner, there were three more doors; the first and last each leading to a bedroom while the middle was a bathroom. The apartment complex was built in an Americanized fashion, and more costly for it but she liked certain comforts. The next wall held a sliding glass door out onto a small concrete balcony (and it was a corner unit so there was another balcony off the master bedroom) then another door to the third and final bedroom. The space between that door and the remaining wall held a couch, positioned to face the tv as best it could in the space. There was another couch against the final wall with a corner table at either end and a low coffee table before it. The walls were still the factory standard with no pictures hanging or out at all but the place had a lived in feel to it.

Tossing the broom towards Yuusuke, then the dustpan, Sora spoke in Japanese now. "You know better than to make a mess so you'd better clean it up before someone steps on those and they get near impossible to get out of the carpet."

All it took was a chuckle, and the second red head was greeted with a dustpan to his face. "What the hell Urameshi!"

The only female playing sighed as the two began what seemed to her to be a "who can be louder" contest, completely ignoring the mess and crushing the chips further into the carpet. Without a word she snatched the broom and dustpan from them to clean up before the small piles annoyed her further.

It took her a minute or two, but it was enough time for her hands to be imprinted by the rug, causing that annoying, relentless itch. "Aw man..." If it weren't for the fact that the majority of the people in the room, her little protest would have gone unnoticed. As it were though, it was enough to cause the two "boys" to pause long enough to look around just in time to see the blue blur crash into the woman who just cleaned up _their_ mess, then the table, flipping it over and pinning the woman below her on top of it.

"Uh...hi Botan?" Yuusuke was the first one who managed to speak, though what else he should say...that was lost on him.

"Yuusuke! It's urgent, where is everyone!" Rather than standing up or moving so she could actually look around and see that almost everyone she was looking for was there, Botan decided on staying where she was. Apparently her mission was enough to make her loose common sense and oblivious to the mess she made, nor the woman trying to wiggle loose from underneath her.

The woman did eventually give up trying to free herself and just let her body relax with a small huff, "At least buy me a drink first..."

* * *

><p>Hello everyone!<p>

Well here's the beginning of another story that Sora-San, Kiera-San and I are working on together. Hopefully y'all enjoyed the first chapter, please do give reviews, always love to hear one's thoughts.

Also, this story has yet to get to the main point...or really setting and all the characters..._but_ this is really just an introduction. If any of you can recognize the picture and name that Botan saw, please do tell us and there will be a congratulations and a thank you written to you in the a/c section next chapter...no cheating ^^

Random author's musings:

Sakura's:

Today, while re-reading this all and editing and piecing things together I came across a realization that gave me endless enjoyment and that I can not believe I did not realize it sooner: sake (as in "for the sake of") and Sake (as in the drink) are spelled the same way! Call me five if you like...but this actually caused me to freak out a little...yeah I know T-T


	2. Chapter 2

Kurama had moved when the shouting started and was trying to reposition all the messy food stuff onto the small divider between rooms. The red head had only succeeded in moving about half the open bags before the table was flipped. Green eyes took in the situation first, but while he was still trying to determine the reason himself, Yuusuke spoke up and Botan quickly answered. Her responses didn't offer any actual information though, just offering reason enough to up the level of worry that was already present due to her unusual entrance.

"You all have to go see Koenma now! He has a new mission for you, now come on let's get going!" Without allowing anyone time to say anything, let alone object, Botan jumped up, oar suddenly in hand, and opened a portal in the middle of the living room.

"Let's go!" This time she waited "patiently" pointing at the portal.

"Just how long will this take Botan?" Sora questioned when the portal opened. She stepped sideways and gestured towards the young girl watching from the kitchen."Some of us have other responsibilities these days and can't just run off anywhere with less than a moment's notice."

Truth be told, if this was just a quick jaunt to Reikai then she wouldn't worry to leave the youngest alone. But it was bound to include a mission and she wanted a guess at how long they'd be gone before sending the child off to be cared for in her absence.

Kiera looked between Sora, Kurama and the glass door leading to the balcony outside. Though she had become stronger, she still had little confidence in herself. Her eyes wandered back towards the rest of the group, silently apologizing for her decision: she couldn't join them this time.

Meanwhile all the woman on the floor could see from underneath Botan was a tiny bit of blue and black pulsating. Seeing as how she was really not sure what was going on, she figured she might as well ask before they all ended up forced to do some mundane task like paperwork or cleaning. "Botan, someone of your...I guess...line of work?... Should know that unless you are somewhat calm, a portal like that could not only send us to the wrong place, but send different parts of us to different places."

Ignoring the terrified "WHAT?" from one of the previously brawling men, the woman continued, "Now, I suggest you take a deep breath, and at least tell us a little of what has you in such a tizzy?"

Botan did actually follow some advice, she took the much needed breath (going to the Ningenkai is no easy trip), but, rather than using this new founded calm to cancel the spell for the portal and tell Sora that it will probably take a while, she began a small chant, "Të hapur derën për komandën time, unë e quaj ty për të bërë ofertave tim. Me kërkesë të portier I oder kyç të kthehet!"

In what seemed like an instant, the apartment seemed to bubble and melt away to all within it (somehow excluding the youngest members while including the one on the balcony) until blues, grays, a desk an over-sized chair and a teen in it, replaced their prior surroundings.

Before she got her usual smack on the head by the "fired" detective, Botan ran to the side of the chair, squeaking out a barely heard, "Sorry."

"Well that was a first," Sora mumbled as the room solidified into the office of Reikai's prince and former boss to most occupants. A quick scan of the room showed only Koenma there besides them so she let her thoughts drift as she waited on the briefing. Her daughter was still back in their apartment, or she would assume since she wasn't here, and the brunette hoped she could get back to the young girl soon.

Kurama stood in the midst of most of the crowd but had turned towards Koenma's desk even before the transportation was complete. Botan's arrival had intrigued him and it seemed even more important than he'd thought if she resorted to skipping the dimensional portal. Whatever the situation though, it wasn't important enough to keep his full focus and green eyes drifted to the corner where the fire demon now stood. He wore an expression that only the red head would know was more annoyed than usual, but he wasn't making any move towards his sword and this calm was workable.

"What is it now binkey breath? I thought I was fired!" Still rilled up from his fight with Kuwabara, Yuusuke strode to the desk and lifted the teen prince,...well now king, with ease.

"You know I wouldn't call you unless it was something of the utmost importance. Now please, put me down so I can get on with explaining." The teen stared his "captor" down with a look that the "detective" had never seen on him before, and was slowly placed back in his seat properly. With one sigh and a bit of shuffling, Koenma revealed a rather ungodly large stack of files and unprotected papers.

"Before I even begin explaining this, I have to tell you all that it is absolutely vital that you do not refuse this mission...and I'm sorry to say, but it will take you away from your respective families for at the very least a month. I am going to have to send you to the United States."

At this, Sakura, who had previously been distracted with translating, or attempting to, Botan's spell, snapped to attention. Like a dog waiting for a treat, she sat down on the ground with a smile, glancing around at everyone, daring them to interupt or try to take away her "bisciut". As it were, Kuwabara this time, tried to protest, but he was silenced quickly by Koenma raising his hand for silence.

"Please let me finish before you fight with me about this. With all the insanity that has happened since over-throwing my father, we have not had time to assign a new Spirit Detective...nor did we notice all of this," His hand quickly pointed to the pile before finding its way back to a neat spot in front of him, "Until it was supposedly too late."

* * *

><p>I am so sorry for the horrendously long break! Hopefully both stories will be back in motion for a little while!<p>

The next few chapters will be just chapters (no AN) but we would still love to get some reviews and guesses...or just some love?


	3. Chapter 3

The three closest to the desk looked to eachother and back at Koenma only to say in unison, "Supposedly too late?"

"According to these, the Christian apocolypse began a little over a year ago..." He waited for a response, but when nothing but shocked and confused faces came, he continued. "As I can tell by your faces, you all understand why that is so strange. At first, at least in America, there were some of the begining signs...but then it just seemed to stop. This lead me to see if anything else strange has happened there, and it not only helped me to discovered that several Gods have gone missing, but many ancient creatures and even, every now and then even, a Spirit World informant."

Finally Yuusuke spoke back up, placing him back in the role of "the leader of the pack", "So...where do we come in?"

Koenma sighed and stood, picking up a previously unseen file and walking over to them all, "I was getting to that...I need all of you to investigate what has happened, stop or begin...or just resolve all of this. Here are plane tickets as well as keys to various homes and cars...I am sending Botan with you, she will not only be your contact with me, but she will be able to act as your money source...of course she will not be with you all the time."

He paused long enough to take a much needed breath and hand Yuusuke the file,"You leave tomorrow from Narita Airport at 12:00pm and will be flying into JFK Airport in New York...I'm not entirely sure what time, but when you do get there, a car will be waiting to take you to your first home and investigation spot, a small town in upstate New York by the name of Worcester. I know some of you can just as easily travel there without plane, but please, this just makes things easy to keep track of. You all have tonight to get what you need in order. I will be in contact with you, goodnight...and...I'm sorry..."

Unnoticed by most of them, Botan had been chanting another spell while Koenma spoke, and by the time he had finished, they were all placed neatly back into place at Sora's apartment left with nothing but the file, frustration and confusion.

"Well that was informative..." Sora began but was cut off when the air fled her lungs courtesy of a pair of arms that latched tightly around her waist. She stumbled but didn't quite fall, the same grip that stole her breath saving her balance.

Upon noticing who it was, the brunette quickly wrapped her arms around the youngest and softly spoke to the girl. "It's alright, I'm back now... I didn't mean to vanish on you..." Brown eyes flickered up to shoot a dirty look at the reaper but she was no where to be seen.

Meanwhile, Kurama had crossed the short distance to stand beside Yuusuke but his attention was focused more on the file than the male. "If we have no choice in taking this case the least we can do is know what we're up against." It was an indirect request for the file, accompanied by a more obvious one when he held out his hand to take the documents.

The man in question shrugged and gratefully handed over the burden of the file to the wanting hands in front of him. "Take it man, I really don't want to be responsible for not loosing it. Besides, I have to go and make sure Keiko doesn't leave my ass over this..." Obviously not wanting to deal with the task, Yuusuke shuffled out of the apartment, only pausing to wave to everyone.

Shortly after the tallest red head followed, mumbling something or other about his cat and missing Yukina.

The newer woman of the group, who still didn't completely grasp the idea of personal space squeezed into the little space between Kurama and the file to read along. "Heh...it does say Worcester...well I guess we are in luck..." She mumbled quickly before "tching" at the fact that they would all have to assume different identities in the different areas they would be going. Soon enough though she forgot this as her mind delved into the case, picking up small things that others might not, connecting others, giving her notes.

Kurama too had dug into the case files, moving himself and Sakura both to the table that had hosted a card game what felt like an eternity ago. The space made for room enough to spread out the papers without having anything too far out of reach.

And that was where Sora found them when she came back after showing the young girl to her bedroom. She slipped into a free chair and picked up some papers the other two had already gone over, talking to herself softly as she went. "New York huh? Haven't been there yet... New names too, that'll be fun." Green eyes met brown across the table and Sora just smiled before looking at the next paper. "Hm, I know a guy who could help with that..."

The trio hung out for a few hours before anybody noticed the time and by then it was late so Sora offered for the other two to spend the night, which they accepted to do so no one overslept. The lights were turned out soon after, once they'd re-collected all the case information and it was stashed to bring with them, but for at least half an hour Sora's voice could be heard through the bedroom door. The words were muffled but she seemed to be on the phone, making various arrangements. Eventually though, she too headed to bed.

Twelve rolled around and the group, including a strangely out of character scared fire demon, settled into their uncomfortable pleather seats and readied themselves for an exhaustingly long trip.

"Stupid Koenma couldn't get us better seats...I swear if they're showing some Rob Schnider gets turned into something movie...I'm jumping..." To his displeasure, a stewardess heard him and made sure to reprimand the brunett punk about even joking about such a thing. His plight had earned him a few giggles from the others around him, but Yuusuke had failed to see the hilarity in it and attempted to begin to fall asleep, only to be warned that he will suffer jet lag if he should fall asleep now. The warning fell on deaf ears and almost instantaneously, Yuusuke was in dream land, quickly followed by Kuwabara, who had the window seat.

In what felt like for ever, they all finally were dropped off at a small but beautiful one level blue house. More interested in the outside than the inside, Sakura wandered around after having been told that they had about an hour and half before Botan arrived with their new identities. She soon learned that they had been at least lucky with the place they were staying...unlike the plane they had to ride where even she became scared. Not only was the land huge and well kept, but on the property was quite the cute pond with a bench and small tree next to it. In the distance, she could hear horses, roosters, cows and dogs.

"It's just like it was when I came here..." She spoke out to no one. From inside she could hear arguing, and rather than risk her ears in that mess the woman plopped onto the bench and watched the water as she quietly sung.

"I already called that room Urameshi!"

"Too bad, there's only three rooms and six of us...and only one bed in each room...I am NOT sharing a bed with you, take the couch!"

"As if I want to share a bed with YOU, I have someone else for that. YOU take the couch!"

The two, seemingly constantly arguing boys continued their spat, not caring about how tired they were nor how they were affecting the other occupants of the small house. They stood in the living room which was complete with a flower print couch, a tv, a long brown lounge chair and a firplace. Connected to that was the kitchen/dinning room which held a glass slidding door that lead to the back porch, all of which was directly across from the front door and front deck. From the kitchen there was a small hallway that served as the laundry room and held yet another door and another porch, though significantly smaller than that of the front and back porch. The room they had been arguing over happened to be the largest room complete with it's own bathroom (with both a shower and very large tub), large closet and big window all of which connected to the living room directly. Across from them was a short hallway with another bathroom, a plain room with a large window facing the back, and a small room with a small window and a door to another small side porch.

It wasn't the home's small size that made it easy for everyone to hear the two, but the fact that the walls were quite thin, so even if they had been arguing on the back porch, someone in the small room would hear every word. Of course, the fact that they were both incredibly loud didn't help...

After a quick walk-through of the whole place, Sora removed herself from the bedroom debate. "It's too warm to be stuck inside without air conditioning and the porch couches look soft enough so I'm going to take one of those."

Kurama, possibly the only one to hear her, offered a smile before she vanished. He would have followed but someone had to be sure the arguing duo didn't decide to make the fight physical. Hoping to delay such eventuality, he spoke to those still inside. "That room's big enough to accomodate at least two people so if you two can't agree then neither of you can have it."

He wasn't looking for the space himself. After Sora's suggestion he wholely agreed that stepping out of the fight was a smarter idea. Unfortunately he wasn't so lucky as to be able to avoid the conflict entirely. Hiei had vanished too, sometime between touch down and arriving at the house but he didn't have time to wonder about him.

The voices trailed after Sora once she'd stepped outside and started making her way towards Sakura but she paid them no mind while speaking into her phone. As she strode over her own voice mingled with the somewhat fading notes from the house. "...address would be great, thanks."

The phone snapped shut a few moments later and the brunette took a seat beside the girl on the bench. "Same idea huh? Avoiding the fighting too so you can't be blamed for the demolished house either?"

At the sound of her friend's voice, the young woman came back down to Earth, "Oh! Ahaha, sorry, I think I must have just spaced out this entire time...I didn't even realize they were fighting..." She let herself stop talking long enough to hear the arguing voices, it was quite harsh to her poor ears.

"I have an idea, come on!" She grabbed her friend's hand and pulled her with the short distance next door and up the little hill until they were knocking on a horse barn door.

A small, kind looking woman with greying hair and eyes popped her head out and smiled. "My, my, if it isn't Miss Powers, I haven't seen you in YEARS! How have you been?" Her thin arms quickly encircled the woman she spoke of in a tight hug.

Sakura giggled and hugged back just as tightly, "Hello Mira, yes it has been. I am fine thank you and I hope you are too." She stepped back a little and gestured to the brunett next to her, "This is my friend Sora, she and a few others are staying with me next door...but we have a bit of a shortage of room...so I was hoping I could bug you into lending us a tent for a little time before we go and buy our own?"

Mira smirked and pulled Sora into a hug, "Of course dearies...but I do need a favor from you both...I have two new horses that are just dying for a ride, and I was hoping that you two would satisfy that while I looked for a nice enough tent?" Before either one of them could protest they were grabbed and thrown into the necessary gear, handed the reins and sent up the path to the corral.

"Aha, she hasn't changed in years, she's still so energetic! Well...I guess we can do this for a bit, we still have a little while 'till Botan arrives." With that, Sakura lept on top of her horse and began a light gallop into the fenced in area.

Back at the house, the two bickering boys had calmed enough to allow themselves to sit down on the couch to watch TV, each with a glass of water. Apparently they had agreed on kicking someone out of the other larger room, and taking those two rooms themselves. It took a while, but Yuusuke relented the largest room to Kuwabara, but not before cracking a joke about how his friend deserved that room, after all a girl does need her own bathroom.

A commercial had just come on when the sound of air swishing about, almost like a non-existant wind, reached their ears, and the friendly blue-haired reaper stood there, blocking their view.


	4. Chapter 4

"You're early..." Was all either one of the could say before Botan reached for the little stack of files.

"Here are all of the identities you will be taking while in New York, I would like to go over them with all of you...where is everyone?"

The boys shrugged in unison as they thumbed through the files, more than interested in what their stories would be.

"They went out back," Kurama spoke from a doorway just behind Botan. "Sora and Sakura at least. Hiei's off doing whatever he feels he needs to right now." There was a short pause. "I'll go collect the girls if you'll baby-sit these two."

And before the reaper could agree or not, the red head had vanished as quickly as he'd shown up.

The second female wasn't as fast by half at getting into the saddle of her horse, but soon enough she was slowly following after Sakura. She didn't try to speak until they were closer, but then she shouted across the remaining space, hoping to be heard properly. "Wait up you! I haven't been on a horse in years and it's only my second time now."

Sakura halted her horse and gave Sora a sheepish grin, "Ahaha, sorry! I haven't been in this area for years...nor have I done anything like this in a while, so I guess I got too giddy and excited!" Suddenly it hit her, what the important fact was in what her friend told her. "Wait! Only your second?" Immediately she turned towards her friend in a gentle trot until she was beside her.

"Well it really doesn't show, you have good control, even the horse agrees." Another smile as she patted the horse, "Would you prefer for me to ride alongside you? The corall is large enough to do so."

"I'm a quick study," the brunette joked, adding a laugh after. "But it does help that the horse is pretty calm." A smile towards the other girl then continued with a shake of her head in the beginning. "Oh no, don't worry about me. You go enjoy yourself, just don't expect me to keep up."

A laugh was all the other woman was able to get out before a distant call grabbed her attention.

"Oiy! Girls! I found it!" From Sakura's angle, it looked like a green box-like bag was calling them, but after about a minute, she could see the kind face of Mira.

"Oh, thank you so much Mira!" She was about to try and dismount, but, after a quick wave, she stayed. "I guess we should start getting these babes back huh?" Her question was directed towards the friend next to her, but she spoke to Mira with her hand out. The older woman accepted the hand and easily hoisted herself and the tent onto the back of the horse, and gripped the other's waist tightly. Without many more words spared, Sakura began to lead the horse back to it's home

followed in silence, unsure of what to say until they arrived back at the stable. As they were dismounting a new figure came striding into view and a smile came naturally to the brunette's lips. She was waving before the red head even got close enough to call out to them.

"There you are," Kurama commented as he drew nearer the trio of women. Whether he noticed the stranger or not was debatable. "Botan's finally arrived with the rest of our information and she's looking for us back at the house."

Sakura waited untill she had helped Mira with everything, including a very quick brush-down of the horses, before even speaking a word to the others, let alone beginning to leave. With everything wrapped up she picked up the tent and gave a quick goodbye and thank you to Mira, promising to visit again and return the tent in perfect condition. Finally she turned to the other two, swung the tent over her shoulder and smiled, "My, my, she's earlier than I had expected...I guess we shouldn't keep her waiting too long." Another smile and she began to lead the the pack back home, this time with a short-cut through the brush that seperated the two areas.

The other two had been talking when Sakura rejoined them, but stopped as she began to lead them back. Kurama even moved forward to take the tent from Sakura, having already been filled in on the girls' plan during the short wait. "Here. Let me take that for you."

After a bit of arguing back and forth and Sakura running off with the tent, the three made it back to the front porch, only to hear a mixture of laughter and arguing through the now opened windows.

"I'm assuming Yuusuke and Kuwabara have looked through everyone's files..." The woman with the "stolen" tent theorized aloud as she went to open the door for the group, but she was beaten to it by an overly happy Kuwabara and Yuusuke.

"Umm hi?" Was all should could manage to squeak out before the tent was plucked from her hands and several , licsenses and other official documents, replaced it.

"Congratulations Mrs. Tanteinorei! Welcome to the family!" The taller of the two boys in front of her smirked as the other one handed the two behind her their documents.

"Hey! What are you doing! I'm supposed to be handing these out and going over everything with all of you!" Botan rushed over as she spoke, causing a little mayhem before she had all of them either sitting or standing in the living room so she could properly adress them.

"Well now that you all have your documents," The normally bouncey reaper paused to send the two deliquents a nasty look, "all except Hiei that is..." She looked around once more to see if she could spot, or even sense Hiei, but, as she expected, there was nothing, so she continued.

"We decided to keep all of your first names the same. Normally, we would assign you all more English names...but we know that only a few of you can speak English well enough to pass off as American or British born." Botan waited a moment for this fact to sink in before explaining more, "To avoid any suspicion from anything you may have to hunt or find, we have changed almost all of your last names to Tanteinorei by-"

Muffled giggles interupted the reaper forcing her to sigh and look at the closest offender she could find in hopes that they would still themselves. It took a few moments and a few louder laughs before Sakura managed to calm herself enough to squeak out, "Sorry" while whiping away the small tears that formed at the corner of her eyes.

"Anyways, as I was saying, the majority of you are all members of the same family one way or another and we expect you to act as such, both in and out of public...you never know if someone can hear you or not. Now, as for your story, it's rather simple and easy to believe. Sakura, who had come here with her...Uncle...when she was younger," the reaper paused again to briefly gain conformation on this information from the multi-colored woman in the form of a slight smile and nod of the head, "spoke to you all about it and eventually convinced you to come here on a little family trip. Since very few of you know English well enough to speak it and survive for a long trip, you asked your friend, Sora Lemus, a translator, to come with you...any questions?"

Not entirely sure why herself, Sakura's hand shot up and waved about a little, apparently she had placed herself back into third grade. After a few minutes of wiggling her fingers, the woman was reminded that she was an adult and slowly dropped her hand lest she embarass herself more.

"Um...if the Spirit World knows that I came here quite a few times...didn't you assume I may be...or already was...recognized? A lot of the people here know me as part of Uncle Jimmy's family, so how can we keep this cover?"

The ex-punks looked at the speaking woman with what she could only describe as mischevieously, slightly worrying her before the blue-haired reaper joined them with a smirk, "You haven't read your information yet have you?"

Sora, who had already skimmed through her information, now leaned over to peer at Sakura's papers as the other girl began looking through. One particular section caught her eye and immediately she looked up to be met a by a knowing green gaze that said the red head hanging back in a calm corner of the room had known already. Logically he would after reading his own file, but she didn't know when he would have had the time between coming to get them at the stable and now.

The woman in question just sat staring at her file nearly convinced this was all a little joke played by Spirit World, "Well now I get why thing one and thing two said what they did."

Most of what she was feeling, Sakura kept behind a composed mask, something she learned from the man she was supposed to now be married to.

'Hell no am I reacting until he reacts...' While she was damn excited, Sakura was quite honestly too scared to react until she saw a reaction from the long haired red head...her "husband" behind her.

"Congratulations," Kurama commented casually. "You just became the envy of a good portion of the Japanese population. Including several of the men."

Sora gave a smile and a slight laugh to Sakura after that comment but internally she was at war with her own emotions. Though it was years now since she'd "dated" Shuuichi back in school, before a stupid decision on her part ended that stage of their relationship, a secret part of her always wanted things to go back to that time between them. And sure this fake relationship wasn't an indicator of actual events, but it still hurt to be just "a family friend" while the rest of her friends were labeled one big family. Not that her psuedonym even mattered one iota...

A few moments passed, long enough for her to miss a few comments made, but the brunette tossed out one of her own. "Well at least you get a last name that doesn't sound like bad Latin..." She stood then, and started towards the kitchen. "This calls for a good drink." Stopping just before the kitchen entryway, she spun on her toes and looked to Botan. "Any chance Spirit World stocked us up on any alcohol or will we need to find a bar and test out these new ids?"

Botan stared at the brunett as if she had just been speaking in tongues, "Well...Um...we actually haven't had a chance to stock up on anything so...have fun at the bar!" Before she could be scolded or asked why, the bright-eyes reaper had dissapeared just as quickly as she had arrived.

"Damnit!" Sakura jumped up right as the chipper girl left, "She didn't even leave us with a car..." Feeling unable to sort through what she was feeling and what she was sure others were feeling, be it worry or unhappiness, the multi-colored woman refused to continue through the night completely sober.

"Screw this..." She stomped off to where her bag lay, and dragged it into the bathroom, soon emerging dressed and ready for the bar; her make-up was light, only enough to accent her eyes with a smokey look and a little bit of lip-stick mixed with lip-gloss, her clothes were another story: The high-heeled, knee high (though that was impossible to tell because of the slightly tight jeans she wore) boots along with the rip strategically placed on her jeans, the too short white tank-top (also complete with a strategically placed rip) which showed a little bit of a tattoo and her tossled hair proved that she was getting to a bar, one way or another.

"I'm walking...I can wait for whoever wants to come or change..."

Before long the whole lot of them were walking for, thanks to a certain ex-detective complaining constantly about walking, what seemed like a full day but in truth was only half an hour to the town, more specifically the only bar in town.

The inside of the bar was your average small town bar; a little smokey, a pool table, a few other scattered seat-games and a juke-box you were sure was broken, but thankfully never was.

"Finally!" Kuwabara blurted out as he and Yuusuke raced to the actual bar to be the one lucky enough to get the first drink before the, quite honestly, attractive female bartender was swamped with orders.

"Hmm...perhaps we should look for some way to get home after all this...I don't really feel like having to carry their drunk butts home..." Sakura spoke with a small smile on her lips, though she honestly did not want to carry them home, she did get some entertainment from the idea. The young woman began to look around, hoping she could see something like a poster or an ad for a taxi company, but what she did see distracted her.

Across the bar, where the pool table sat, were two young looking men, seemingly winning a great deal of money from the two other men they played. One of them sat there gloating, while the other seemed to quietly try to pull him back before he caused a fight.

'Oh...I can't resist this...'

Sakura leaned over to Sora and smiled, "Sora...you any good at Pool?"

The brunette laughed. "Not if you want any hope of winning." She scanned the mildly crowded area once before meeting Sakura's eyes. "How about you take your hubby over for a game or two, I'm sure he'd learn fast."

A glance to the red head showed he'd either not been listening or was pretending to not have heard and Sora almost laughed again. On the walk over she had bet with Yuusuke and Kuwabara over the likelihood of getting the fake "couple" to actually hook up. $50 to whoever was right; she thought she could pull it off before the end of the mission, Kuwabara saw potential but said not until the mission was over and Yuusuke said it wouldn't work at all.

"Ah, that is probablly true..." Truth be told, the smaller woman had temporarily forgotten about the mission, let alone the assigned relationships they were given, when her eyes had seen the pool table, and a chance to get more money than the Spirit World had given them...which was barely enough to survive for a week with the two deliquents, let alone an undecided period of time, she let everything else melt away.

{Yoo-hoo, boys!} Though she had been there a good amount of times, and her English was still passable, Sakura still had quite the accent.

None the less, she continued, {What do you say you play against us? I'm sure we can make it worth your while...say...each of us bets five hundred, and to make it fair we will do best two out of three?}

Her smile seemed friendly enough and after giving the two ample time to completely figure out what she had said and agree, the multi-colored woman gently grabbed the red-head, "Come on Ku-Chan, let's get us all some drink money!" Sakura giddily spoke as she lead him through the strangely dense crowd until they got to the pool table.

It took about ten minutes for the first game to end leaving the two American boys the winners.

{You can drop out of this now and save yourselves the embarassement...we'll only take half of what you bet.} The male with the shorter hair smirked as he quite honestly paraded around the table, absolutely sure of their coming victory, speaking each word longer and louder than he normally would.

{Thanks but no thanks...What would be the fun in that?} Drawing out her words and raising the volume of her voice match that of the man she was speaking to, Sakura smiled and pointed at the balls to be re-racked.

Collectively, the next two games took under five minutes, leaving the two men in a mixture of dumbfounded and pissed as the shorter of their oppenents collected $1000 from them with a smirk.

{What the Hell?} The older, though shorter, male commented as the winning pair walked off to rejoin their friends. He glanced at his compaion, who just shrugged then tilted his head towards the front doors with a softly spoken, 'hey man.' The first male followed his gaze to the guy in a trenchcoat hanging out near the doors, apparently unable to locate them.

The duo then set their pool sticks on the table and minutes later were gone.

Meanwhile, Yuusuke and Kuwabra had commandered a table just barely large enough to fit them both, and after several drinks, put on a tab that already amounted to as much money as they had from Reikai and were attempting to hit on girls through the language barrier. Sora hung out at the next table, watching and laughing at their failings, as well as swooping in for the occasional "rescue" effort. In just half an hour she'd already had a handful of kisses to escape the boys, and one genuinely interested in girls but just not her type.

When they approached, the area around both tables empty for a few minutes, Kurama was speaking to Sakura. "Intentionally losing that first game makes you a hustler, as well as a thief for taking that much money from humans."

"A theif sir, I agree, but a hustler? Nay, I just think we had some plain bad luck."

The woman in question winked and let out a small laugh before turning to their only comprehendable friend of the three, "Well then, I see the boys have been keeping busy...hopefully not litterally." She rolled her eyes and attempted to order a gin and tonic, but was cut off from the bartender by the two sloppy bodies that now hung all over Kurama.

"Shey...'e keeps...the girls..." Kuwabara pointed lazily at Sora and spoke into Kurama's ear while Yuusuke leaned on the red-head's other side, nodding along and repeating, "Snot...air!"

"My, my, Sora, I think you're being accused of stealing all the ladies hearts...and with barely a drink down." Sakura smiled at the brunette before joining her at the small table and finally getting the attention of the bartender.

'I swear...if she cards me...'

The brunette offered a sly smile. "Well I had to keep them safe," she answered the first, though whether she meant the girls or the drunk pair was debatable. "And the only reason I'm not keeping pace with the boys is that we'll need a mostly sober driver."

"Oh hello there, may I please get a Gin and Tonic..oh, tanqueray please, not house. Thank you." The small woman let out a small sigh of relief when the bartended just nodded and walked off to make her drink.

"Ers Jin? I'll fight 'im!" The slightly shorter of the three males half-mumbled before leaning back against who he designated as his "leaning post".

"I just hope they drank their liquor before their beer...I really don't feel like taking care of two sick, drunk men tonight."

Green eyes looked towards Sora as the red head struggled with getting their drunk friends back into the booth. She waved a hand absently and shortly Kurama had the others seated and was joining the second table, where the occupants weren't wasted.

she had been handed her order, and taken the few first sips to make sure it was to her liking, Sakura finally commented on Sora's strange statement, "Driver? Huh...I had planned on walking home...or eventually winning a nice car from someone." The woman gave the red head a small smirk and continued sipping at her drink.

"Actually...that seems like fun.." Her eyes scanned the crowd while she thought out loud, "I did see a nice Impala out there..."

At the booth next to the still speaking group, the boys had slowly begun to feel the effects of the ammount of alcohol they had inhaled as the world around began to spin at a naseating pace.

Sora laughed at the last comment while Kurama just shook his head. The waitress with Sakura's order returned with a drink for him then and he downed a good portion of it after he finally convinced her to leave their table. "I take it you've secured us a proper vehicle already then."

It was both a question and not, but Sora answered it as if it were. Her nod was quickly followed by a brief explanation. "I had my car sent up from Cassidy's place when we arrived. You remember she agreed to watch it for me, don't you?" He nodded though she was continuing already. "Well I made another call once we got here to change the drop off and luckily the driver was just reaching town so stopping at the bar worked even better. He might even have stopped in here to get a drink himself, though there's no way for me to know who it was."

"I assume you made sure," he asked as she took another sip of her own drink and rechieved another nod.

"Yeah, I peeked outside while the boys were getting started on their binge."

"Oh wh-" Sakura's question was cut off by curiosity when a lithe, red-headed woman with similar attair to her's jumped up on the bar with a giggle.

"Who wants five...sorta...free Kamikaze shots!" Her voice was rather sultry as she glanced about the bar at various women. One woman she didn't get a chance to look at was the first to speak up: Sakura.

"Sorta free...why sorta?" Though tempted, the woman HAD just offered five of her favorite shots, she had learned long ago to never accept until you heard the terms.

"Well you must come up here and sing and dance for us." The stranger leered at Sakura, warning her that the songs would be embarassing. But, the multi-colored woman that was Sakura had long since lost her ability to be too embarassed and took the challenge. It took the stranger's hand to get up to the bar before she was whispered what song she would have to sing.

"You're just lucky I know this song." Sakura laughed before making sure she cleared things out of the way and gave a quick warning, "This song may not be suitable for anyone under the age of eighteen, you've been warned."

She took the chance to laugh a little and take a quick breath in before finally beginning a song she, and just about every other occupant of the bar, well understood was about something she'd been without for a while now.

When she finally finished, Sakura gently jumped down from the bar and walked over to where the stranger had her five shots, with a quick thank you, she finished them and sat back down with her friends.

"You are shameless..." Kurama commented softly across the table, but his tone was more amused than anything else. Both he and Sora had finished their drinks as Sakura sang and in the next booth Yuusuke and Kuwabara would be lucky if they weren't entirely coated in drool when they woke.

Sakura laughed lightly at the comment and shrugged, the buzz finally hitting her, "I'm actually surprised she choose something so...I guess I'll say docile...I know many songs, much, much worse." The woman let out another small laugh before stretching out and letting out a little yawn. Little pools of water formed at the edge of her eyes and she allowed herself to slump until she was in danger of falling from her seat.

"Shoot...I think that plane ride is finally catching up with me...and I haven't even got our tent pitched yet." Her hands folded onto the table neatly to catch her head in case it fell from it's nodding position.

"Well let's head back then," Sora suggested as she slid out of her seat. "It's probably best to get this pair somewhere they can crash while they might still be willing to move."

A short time later they were headed back to the house. It took a considerably shorter time to get Yuusuke and Kuwabara into the car than expected thanks to some subtle air manipulation. The vehicle itself, a blue '94 Pontiac Bonneville, barely fit the five or them but a bit of manuevering had them all seated decently. Sora played driver, claiming she had a license though Spirit World had neglected to include any for the group. The return trip was still much shorter than the walk to town, even though she dropped the four passengers off in front of the house then rounded the block to park a distance away.

When she got back to the house, the brunette skipped past he front door and rounded the building to find Sakura and Kurama outside attempting to set the tent. Sora hadn't gotten halfway to them before the red head noticed her but he didn't speak until she nearer. "You really don't like following Reikai's instructions, do you?"

"I don't like being watched," she answered with a small shrug. She moved to a corner of the tent to help before saying more. "It's nothing against Reikai personally, but I don't like them knowing every move I make. My own money, my own id, my own vehicle... As long as I can have a few secrets I feel better."

"What about this place?" he asked. "You don't seem to mind being watched here."

"Because they expect to be able to keep tabs on us," she answered with a small shrug. "If they couldn't see us here there might be a problem, but sending us to this town means there's something to check out so we can be hidden away from the house. A downplayed concealing spell at the bar could have been from anything, even a creature not there. And it would only feel like a hum in the back of your head if you were inside it."

A nod to show he followed her. "And you didn't park in front of the house with a similar cloaking charm because...?"

"Because that risks it getting hit if we are given our own transportation." The red head nodded as their eyes met for a moment, then she ducked down to grab part of the tent cover. "This first, just in case."

Kurama picked up his end. "And if they don't supply us further?"

"Then we handle it ourselves. Sakura won us a bunch of money, with your help, and any one of us can get more as we need it. Plus she's already thinking about getting another vehicle in case we need to split up so I'd say we're set."

Silence from the red head provoked Sora to continue talking, sharing information she wasn't sure if he already knew. "We weren't the only unnaturals at that bar, though you were busy playing pool. I ran into a guy, almost literally, when I was coming back inside after checking for my car. He's nothing we've dealt with before."

This drew a careful look from the male. "Nothing horrible," Sora replied quickly. "I don't think anyway. His power was strong, but... pure, in a way. I can't explain it." That last came with a shake of her head. "Maybe he's a good guy, like us. Though I did get a church-y vibe for a moment there, like he was highly religious or something. I always forget the Christian god is much more common over here in America."

"Did he say anything?" Kurama asked to which he recieved a shake of her head.

"Nothing. He barely even acknowleged me after nearly knocking him over." Not that she thought he would have fallen, now that she was giving it thought.

"I know you don't do well with describing people but would you be able to pick him out if you saw him again?"

"Oh yes, no doubt." A moment's pause, then she continued. "He had these eyes... Blue I think, but they were so deep and searching yet there was an innocence too..."

A thin arm snaked around the brunett's shoulder, "Oh? Deep, searching, innocent...for someone you met for a very short time, you sure do remember his eyes quite well." Sakura leaned a little on Sora so she could speak closer to her, "I don't entirely blame you though, mysterious is always an eye catcher for women. Was he tall, dark and handsome?" Her arm fell back down, giving her more room to squeez past the other two to give the wobbly tent a frustrated kick.

All the trio heard was groaning and then a rather loud snapping sound as the tent quite litterally bounced into place next to the little pond. From thirty feet back from where she was originally standing, Sakura took a tentative step forward, "Do...do you think it's sturdy?" Slowly she made her way back towards the tent and gently pushed against it until she was satisfied enough to make her way inside to inspect everything.

"Coolie, I'm going to quickly run back inside and grab my things and get ready for bed."

A few minutes later had the young woman nearly skipping back outside in her pajamas and carrying enough pillows and blankets for three people. "It gets a bit chilly here at night, regardless of how hot it may be during the day."

Before either the brunett or the red head could respond to her, Sakura took the bundle into the tent only to have everything set up within seconds. "It's all good to come in now."

The duo entered after Sakura called out to them, Kurama hanging back at the entrance to allow Sora before him. It was both an act of chivalry and precaution, just in case Sakura decided on something potentially regretable while intoxicated, such as sleeping in the nude. All was well though, and only a short time later the three were settling in. They were wrapped in blankets borrowed from the house and lay essentially side-by-side. Soft cvonversation fluttered through the tent for maybe half an hour or an hour before dying off as they all entered slumber.


	5. Chapter 5

"Ch, Ow!" Sakura ripped her hand back from the sizzling pan, glaring at it as she licked at the tiny burn it left. When the smell of burning began to permeate the air she sighed and quickly removed the items that were creating the offending scent and quickly replacing them with uncooked ones.

A little ding went off making the young woman turn her attention to the toaster as well as the two other pans she left on the stove.

Eventually everything she worked at finished and the entire house smelled of breakfast. As she went about making the table, admittedly feeling a little too much like a house wife, her mind replayed the events that had happened a little over an hour ago.

"I don't think it's a demon...so we may have to do a little bit of research...maybe it's a group of meanads...hmm"

Off in the other two smaller rooms, Sakura could hear groaning, interupting her thoughts long enough to smile and call out to the two, "Come and eat up, we have a lot to do today and we can't afford to be held back by your two hungover asses."

The two she spoke to nearly collided as they hobbled out of their parallel rooms to begin their slow shuffle into the kitchen. The taller of the two perked up a little when he recognized the rather large selection of food waiting for him at the table and was about to sit and enjoy himself but he was stopped by a glass shoved into his and the other male's way. "What is this..." The smell alone was enough to make him turn away, nevermind the strange nearly glowing look to it.

"A little hair of the dog, now drink and sober up."

Voices could be heard outside, though they had to get closer to the building before any words could be made out. After Sakura had left to make everyone breakfast, Sora and Kurama had stayed out back to break down the tent. The plan was to go shopping and pick up one of their own, among other last minute supplies. Repacking the tent had taken longer than expected, but it was years since Sora had done such and Kurama never had.

Finally they managed and were headed into the house, snatches of their conversation floating through the opened window as they passed it.

"...dows to the soul, of course I'd look at them." The female paused, listening to a reply too low to hear inside and she answered, interrupted by a car on the street. "No...obably long gone."

The door creaked open then, followed by the gentle bang as it swung shut and moments later the pair were meeting up the rest of the group in the kitchen. Both were dressed in clean, fresh outfits and looked far better after a night outdoors than the males in their claimed bedrooms.

"Morning," Sora commented as she slid into an open seat at the table. "Ugh... What's that stench?"

Yuusuke turned to the brunett with a grimace, "I think it's essence of skunk or something..."

Before he could place the glass down and refuse to drink it, a slender hand grabbed his nose and forced the drink into his mouth causing him to gag and run towards the bathroom.

"Now, now...my cooking isn't as bad as it smells." The young woman winked at the pair and proceeded to place food onto two new plates.

"What would you like to drink...we have fresh milk, fresh orange juice and tap water?"

Her eyes quickly looked to the side to stare at the full glass of the nearly glowing mixture, "Kuwabara...I suggest you drink that, lest you want the same treatment as Yuusuke...maybe even worse...I suggest you finish that beverage...now..."

Without another word Kuwabara grasped his own nose and poured the strange liquid down his throat and proceeded to run off towards the other bathroom followed by a small chuckle from Sakura who turned her attention back to the two without hangovers.

"Please eat you two...I have a feeling we have one hell of a day ahead of us...Ah, I wonder where Hiei ran off to? I gathered some information which has lead me to some theories as well as a plan...but I think it would be better if everyone was around before we discuss plans..." Sakura pursed her lips together in thought before sighing and walking to the stove, turning it off and starting on dishes.

"I swear I've already slipped into the freaking house wife role..."

From both sides of the living room the two deliquents slowly shuffled back into the kitchen, their color and what little sense they had back.

"Well blame Spirit World for that one," Sora replied. "They did pick you to be married." She managed out a laugh that sounded genuine but resolutely avoided eye contact with the green gaze she was sure awaited her.

Instead of commenting, the red head backtracked on Sakura's speech. "We've been discussing theories as well, and so far the only conclusion we've reached is that it can't be werewolves."

"Right," Sora nodded, mouth half full of milk. She'd started to take a drink as Kurama spoke and quickly swallowed before finishing. "The moon's in the wrong part of it's cycle for it to be a wolf right now, though there might have been some activity back two weeks ago."

"Agreed..." Sakura smiled at the thought of the moon, she was already missing the bright full moon.

"I don't think this is..or really these are...anything like what we've fought or investigated before." A thought hit her right as she finished the dishes, allowing her to finally sit down and sip at some water, "Sora...didn't you say the person you nearly ran into last night felt...pure? Well, I'd say that this is exactly what I felt when I checked out the farm down the road who have had a few animals go missing...I felt...I'm not entirely sure how to explain it..."

She leaned into her hand with a small sigh, "Call me crazy...but I don't think this is going to end up being anything for us..."

"Okay...you're crazy." Yuusuke mumbled out from his spot between the table and wall before quickly dodging some salt tossed in his direction.

I did," Sora answered but Sakura had already gone on. She listened then in silence.

"So you've already checked out the location?" Kurama asked. He waited only long enough for Sakura to nod before going on. "While not the most intelligent choice, that does check one item off our task list. Now, we just need to check for patterns, to see if something like this hasn't happened before, and, of course, we'll still need to go shopping.

"When we go to town I suggest we split into teams. Either we can divide the supply list and meet up to research, or one team can go shopping while the others visit the library and newspaper archives."

"I call being on the shopping team...There's no way I'm going to spend hours doing research...I'm not in school anymore!" The Ex-Detective protested, thinking he needed to say something as input that wouldn't end up having something thrown at him, even though he knew there was no chance he would be put on the research team.

"So...are we waiting for the shrimp?" Kuwabara waited a few seconds before snorting out the answer to his own question, "You know what...let's ditch him! After all he did ditch us first...he completely forgot we were a team!"

When it was her turn to put in some input, Sakura pushed back from the table, forgoing breakfast, and half-stomped to the bathroom. She waited for the water to start running before she finally allowed herself to relax and get ready for the day.

Roughly an hour later everyone was as ready as they could be and had piled into Sora's car and headed into town. Yuusuke and Kuwabra had been dropped off in front of a large general store. Each boy was supplied with a detailed list of what to buy, courtesy of Kurama. A short time later the blue car had pulled up near the front entrance of the local public library.

The other two had already climbed out and were heading towards the building when Kurama noticed that Sora was still behind the wheel. "Aren't you going to come help us?"

"Not just yet." The answer came with a shake of her head. "I've gotta hit a bank in person to be sure my card will work and make a call to my cell company and check on a couple other things." She shrugged. "You know, the usual when you cross halfway around the world." A laugh. "I haven't driven my car in a while so I don't even know if something might have gone bad, though I do know I'll need gas soon."

Though he seemed hesitant, Kurama let her drive off with just a small goodbye and then went to meet with Sakura again. "There's a camping supply store only a couple blocks over," he began with an unexpected subject, "and if you'd prefer we could go choose a proper tent. I purposely left a couple things off those lists I gave Yuusuke and Kuwabara."

nothing but a nod, the woman began the walk to the little camping supply store, making sure to take note of her surroundings, every now and then allowing a little bit of her energy to flow out in search of anything out of the ordinary.

By the time the two reached the store, Sakura had been strangely dissapointed. It wasn't that she wanted to run into something while it was the just the two of them, she wanted to at least get traces of something...anything really. Instead, she was faced with a big pot of nothing in a town that was supposed to have some terrifying bady wreaking havoc.

Inside the store, things were just as uneventful as they were outside. The two went about their business, purchasing a rather large tent using the money they had won from the pool game as well as some lighters, a fan and some emergency supplies. On their way out, the female stopped and allowed herself to stare: Down the road, apparently in the time it took them to decide on a tent and purchase some things, an event was being held with a few prizes. One of those prizes, which now had her undivided attention, happened to be what she immedeately recognize as a '65 Thunderbird Convertible.

"My oh my! This is just too perfectly convienent!" Without thinking, Sakura grabbed Kurama by his wrist and pulled him along with her, again, into the heart of the celebration only to see that it was a contest.

A man clad in the steryotipical cowboy outfit stood in front of a rather intracate obstacle course that was placed on top of a mixture that looked disturbingly similar to Sakura's hangover fix. The obstacle course looked like a mixture of strength testing and balance testing that could only be won through wit and strategy. Above the man, in front of the course, hung a large sign with "Worcester Warrior" written on it in very large, horribly copied false Japanese print. Finally the man began to speak, {Hello everyone and welcome to the Worcester Warrior and special challenge!}

This title earned him a few laughs from the crowd and he continued, {In a few seconds we will invite some of you up here to try out the course behind me, and for those of you lucky and talented enough to complete it, we will have a surprise challenge for you. First place will win the car!} He waited for the cheers to echo throught the crowd before he called for those who "dared to ty" to come up on stage.

It didn't even take half a minute before Sakura was bouncing about on stage with six men, all ranging from bulky to hulky.

One in particular decided to heckle the only female up there with him in a rather heavy Southern accent, {Oho little lady...this is a contest for men...I wouldn't want to see you get hurt or break a little nail. Why don't you watch and cheer me on...and maybe later I'll take you out in my brand new car?}

Sakura caught a pair of green eyes and smirked before giving the male a rather quick response, {Sorry little one...but I'm married.} She managed to bite back her laughter at the man's confusion and anger at her comment and most of all her accent.

Each person had two minutes to complete the course; the better their time, the earlier they would get to go in the secretive, special challenge.

After about seven minutes, Sakura stood as one of the three people not covered in what she prayed was just dyed water. Her eyes scanned about again until she saw the man from before, {Maybe if you play nice I'll let you pump my gas for me.} The man was about to respond but was cut off by the rather obnoxious feed back from the event organizer's mic.

{Well that was quite a show wasn't it!} Another pause for applause and cheering and he continued again, {Now for what you've all been waiting for! Our surprise event: Battle Royal!} As he spoke a once covered circular thing was unveiled to be yet another circle of the disguesting liquid with a thin, padded ledge that stretched across its diameter. {Two people at a time will use these,} He picked up a giant q-tip and shook it about, {As their weapon to try and knock their opponent into the mystery juice belown them. It only counts as a win when the other person is actually IN the water; if you knock the off the ledge but they manage to hang on without touching the water, the match is still on!}

Since she was the one with the slowest time, (well she couldn't completely destroy the male population's idea of a woman) Sakura was to go against the victor of the first battle. As it was, she only had to wait for about five minutes before the muscular man was knocked down by the overly muscular man to the rediculously loud cheers of the crowd.

'Wow...this crowd is out for blood...'

The event coordinated approached Sakura with the helmet, earning him a scoff from the man still balancing on the ledge, {You might as well proclaim me the winner. This pretty little lady might have been lucky by understanding how to get through the obstacle course, but I'd hate to have to hurt her, I've always been told not to pick on the obviously weaker.} Apparently the man thought himself to be hilarious and let loose a long string of obnoxious laughs.

'Oh great...another sexist prick...oh if only he knew...' The female rolled her eyes and pushed the event coordinator's hands, which still held the helmet, away. She took a few steps back, grabbed the giant q-tip and ran, using the q-tip as a pole-volt to launch herself neatly onto the ledge. They waited for the call to start before the man began to jab at Sakura's feet. At one point he had succeded in hitting her feet, causing her to loose balance long enough for him to sweep the q-tip around at her head.

The crowd made a noise, certain that the young women had lost AND gained an injury, but were surprised when they noticed that her leg was up, blocking herself. In an istant she brought her "weapon" to the back of the man's leg, pushing him down, and with one more push, off the ledge.

{YAY!} Was all the young women could muster as she rushed over to impatiently await the keys to her car, complete with a paid registration and a year's insurance.

When all was said and done, she met back up with the red-head with a rather smug smile on her face. "I'm driving." True, she was absolutely thrilled about the car, but that didn't mean she was over being sour.

"I guess we should call Sora, pick up the boys and meet up somewhere...then we can work on research..."

At that same moment a figure came from within the crowd and caught Sakura from behind. The arms around her belonged to the very female she'd just mentioned, who had arrived in time to witness the battle round. Kurama made no move to interfere, merely watching both females.

"Congrats!" the brunette cheered almost directly into Sakura's ear before letting go and moving in front of her. Along with the T-shirt and jeans she'd been wearing before, Sora now also wore a windbreaker bunched on her lower arms so it hung in back. "Nice moves too. I must have showed up just as your match started and you rocked. Though I do have to know... Was that stumble intentional or did he actually get a hit on you?"

The young woman began to laugh as the little scare of being grabbed from behind left her and replaced giddy excitement, "Thank you!" Her smile was brighter than it had been for the majority of the day at her friend's compliment. "Well I was getting tired of him attacking my feet...plus the whole thing was taking too long...so rather than being too "girl power-ish" and completely destroying his sexist ideals, I let him feel the rush of victory and then slapped it from him." Another laugh escaped her, though this one was a bit more malicious...the truth was that she had planned to let him think he was winning long enough to get excited, just to watch him suffer in defeat. It was a bit cruel, but it was one thing that helped her current mood at least.

While the two girls chatted and let themselves feel giddy and excited, the two former deliquents sat outside of the grocery store with more than enough bags than they could comfortably carry. They had been waiting for about half an hour, more than just steamed about the whole experience they had to just undergo. Not only had they had to guess at each isle, making it take longer, but when they were trying to check out, the cashier had obviously scrutanized them for not being able to speak English.

"I swear I'm going to kill them when they finally get here..." Yuusuke grumbled, earning him more looks from people entering the store.

"So...do you think the boys are all done?" Sakura directed her question at the other female. Absent mindedly she spun the keys around her fingers in a soothingly monotonously way.

"If you think we should split up again, I still know my way around here damn well..."

"Awesome," Sora agreed with a laugh.

"Well you could always go check," the brunette offered. "I'm sure you're jsut itching to drive that thing and I'm parked pretty close between here and the library so we could just meet there after you get the boys?"

After Sakura's elated reply, Sora spun on one foot to look to Kurama as the other female was already halfway gone. "That was alright with you, wasn't it?"

"Of course," he answered simply. His expression was neutral but she could see the questions already building in his mind. However, he waited until they passed the crowd and then almost another block before speaking again. "What'd you do this time?"

"It's nothing," Sora replied casually. In her books it was, the pain was already faded to nearly nonexistant and the bandage had stopped the bleeding.

"Don't give me that," he countered, voice low. They still were on a public street. "I can smell the blood. Let me see."

With a sigh she relented. "Inside." They shared a glance and he nodded acceptance.

They were just reached the front steps to the library so the wait was a short one. Sora refused until they had moved to the back of the building and were hidden from the nearest people by several shelves. Finally though, she removed the jacket from her left arm to reveal a medical bandage extending from her wrist halfway up her lower arm. Without waiting for permission that he already had, Kurama careful began unraveling the bandage down to the gauze which extended right to the edges. The wound underneath was only a few inches long but he couldn't be sure how deep and arm wounds are always dangerous.

"This is nothing?" he asked her with the usual expression of disbelief. Holding her arm still in his left hand, his right arm went behind his head, searching.

"It's not as bad as it looks and I got it bound up right away." Her answer was calm, casual almost. Fighting would only put her in a worse position right now, the calm would minimize the blood flow and loss. "It's not as though I left it open and bleeding in the middle of a fight."

"How did you do it?" The question came at the same time as he produced a leaf, seemingly from nowhere, and gently pressed it against the wound. At first it seemed too small but as he began rewinding the bandage around it the leaf covered the entire gash. The gauze lay to the side, bloody and just waiting to be thrown away.

"Would you believe me if I said I forgot about a blade in my car?" she asked innocently.

"Self-inflicted is highly improbable," he retorted. "Even accidentally. I know you."

"Well I don't know what to tell you then." He finished and Sora, out of habit, pulled her arm close to her body and cupped her right hand around the bandage, gently squeezing to be sure things were in the proper place. "Would you rather hear I got in a knife fight with a dragon then? In our life anything is possible afterall."

If Kurama had a clever remark his chance was lost as loud footsteps announced the arrival of the remaining team members. In their last moments alone, Sora slipped her arm back into the jacket sleeve so no one else could see the injury. Some days it was easier to just hide than have to explain what had happened, especially when she'd brought it on herself.

Their library time was cut extremely short after a discussion began of what they already knew. Sakura restated her previous assertion that there was nothing in town, which none of the guys could disagree with, and Sora mentioned the same as well as even asking around as she did her errands. Thus, the team returned to their temporary home, sporting another vehicle which was necessary just to get all the supplies back to the house.

Everyone was carrying at a couple of bags as they entered the house, only to stumble onto the last scene anyone would ever expect. Everywhere the eye could see were chickens, some settling in to rest and others walking about calmly but in the next moment there was a familiar voice and flare of energy that sent the peacful birds back into a frenzy.


	6. Chapter 6

Inside the kitchen was the fire demon. A tiny trickle of blood rolled down his face and he had his sword drawn as he held himself in the sort of position to fight a great enemy. Only a few feet away, cornered, was a larger rooster.

"I've found the creatures responsible," Hiei commented as the rest of the team began to file in to see him. "These foul beasts are like nothing in the Makai and their technique is unheard of. All the others provide distraction while this one is the real danger."

As if to prove his point, one of the startled hens fluttered through the kitchen, making noise and dropping feathers as it flapped in a mad frenzy.

At this, the two boys who had been the first to enter nearly dropped their bags as they laughed to the point of tears at the small fire demon. After they had their bags placed safely, though honestly nothing was safe in the house with the chickens running around and screeching, the two managed to take a breath long enough to continue laughing.

"Oh no Urameshi, we better call in the Special Defense Force, these are some deadly chickens!" Whether chickens could understand English was one question, but they seemed to understand Japanese as one of the hens launched herself at Kuwabara to prove her truly terrifying. The orange-haired boy shrieked and ran towards the small demon, hoping to use him as a distraction, only to have his plan back-fire and some more hens chase after him.

Before the Detective could respond or even laugh at his friends, he too had become a target and joined the chaos.

"Guess I found where the farms missing animals went..." Sakura mumbled as she placed her bags down on the floor in front of the couch while gently shooing a chicken away from them. "I will be back in a bit with a solution...think you can get these little guys outside?" She spoke to no one in particular, but it was clear her mood had fallen again...though honestly it is probably the reason why she was left unbothered by the fowls.

It took a couple of minutes, long enough for the young woman to return the borrowed tent to Mira and say a goodbye (of course promising to visit again soon), and walk back down the long path back to the road where those who could hear over the yelps of those being chased and the shrieks of those chasing, would hear her calling, sing-song like, {Hunter, come on baby boy. Hunter come here} Over and over.

Eventually Sakura had returned, followed by a large black dog that seemed to be going in zigzags, only sometimes walking in front of her when he spotted a patch of grass he wanted to nibble on.

{Hunter don't eat that, you'll throw up.} The young woman could be heard laughing as she finally got the dog up the hill to thankfully see most of the chickens out of the house running about the yard.

"SUU! Chi-CHI-CHi" Sakura called out, changing her pitch up and down until she had the attention of all the, now hopeful of food, chickens.

{Hunter, take them home!} She gave a small kiss to the dog's nose before it bounded off and behind the chickens, chasing them down the yard, into the road and back to their home.

"Well since there's nothing here...I say we move on to the next area." Her keys were already in her hands as she spoke.

"Right...and where would that be? Binky Breath gave us a list of possible places, so we don't have an actual destination." To prove his point Yuusuke dug into his pockets to pull out the crumpled list which Sakura didn't even want to guess why it was in his pocket.

But, none the less she pointed to one of the names on it, "Here, it's three hours from here...I know the area better than I...excuse the clique...know the back of my hand...and since the Spirit World seems intent on making me revisit my old haunts...as this list proves...my guess is here...I'll be in the car..."

It took about two hours for the three hour trip, the speed of the trip causing the former Detective to consider praying until they safely pulled into a small road next to a field with children playing soccer in orange and blue uniforms. But rather than continuing further down the road, Sakura pulled a little bit off the road and parked so she could safely exit her newly claimed "baby" without worrying about it rolling away without her.

"So, did Botan give us an address to a home for us to use...or are we supposed to drive around until we find a place that screams "Spirit World" to us?" She looked towards the two holding onto all the files to find that her later guess was unfortunately right on the money. "Fucking awesome...Well this place is incredibly small so this at least won't take too long…beside I have a guess..." Sakura slipped back into the car and let it roar to life, lifting her mood just a bit, before spinning around and going back onto the main road for all of five seconds till the next light where she took a right up a windy hill, passing trees, some more trees, a gas station, a few horses, a giant church and its grounds, a restaurant bar and then finally taking a left onto a small road followed by another immediate left, up around a blind turn and into an empty drive way. "Yep...of course I had to be right..." The engine came to a stop and the young woman stepped out of the car onto the gravel driveway with the magnolia tree bending over it, to walk up the stone steps, lifted one large stone to grab a key and unlocked the door to the two story yellow house.

Kuwabara managed to pull his few affects out of the car and jump out of the car in time to follow her and get a good scope of the small yard (the back yard being larger than the front that was separated by the driveway), two magnolia trees, a well, a stone area off the right side of the house which had another small porch and a fire pit, several gardens and natural cliffs. He allowed himself to appreciate the sight long enough to have it nearly burned into his memory before following Sakura up the few steps, under the enclosed porch and into the house to be greeted by a dining room connected to a bar-kitchen, with a glass door to the other porch. The orange haired boy would have taken a little longer to explore, but a need pressing against the lower half of his abdomen had him rushing about, past the stairs and living room, past a door which was opened to show a room with two windows and into the end of a tiny hall where he had the option to enter the door in front of him, to the left or to the right. Thankfully, he chooses the door to his left and slammed the door shut behind him. Not long after Kuwabara had entered the bathroom, the former Detective walked into the house, plopped his things in in the middle of the living room and dropped onto the nearest couch with a contented sigh.

Noises could be heard coming from upstairs as Sakura walked into the smaller room connected to the large room that "upstairs" mainly consisted of, and smiled as she entered the baby blue, cloud covered room, long enough to allow herself to drop to the ground and lay there smelling the carpet.

After a quick walk-through of the downstairs, Kurama made his way back outside to scout out the grounds of this new building. No matter how calm it had been so far (relatively speaking), they were still on a case and there was no telling when something might attack or where it would come from. Yuusuke and Kuwabara never thought about that though and he couldn't be sure quite where Sakura's mind was and with Hiei off where ever he was now, that left more for the red head to consider.

Sora was the last one to enter the new house, having stopped to cast a low grade concealment on her car once again. Let Reikai wonder how they'd gotten everyone moved in just the one vehicle, a vehicle Koenma probably still didn't even know they had.

Upon entering she paused at the front door and started to slip her pack off but changed her mind just before setting it down and slung it back over her shoulder. Then she wandered deeper into the house to explore.

Finding that they both had thoroughly inspected the first floor of the house (Yuusuke was fooling himself into believing that at the very least), the previous Detective and the Carrot top let their exhaustion grab them and collectively collapsed on the floor (all Yuusuke had to do was fall off the couch) for a good four to six hour nap.

Creaks could be heard coming from upstairs as they closed their eyes, only to be followed by rather soothing, lulling, clumping sounds across them from the stairs. If they had managed to keep their eyes open for a few more seconds, they would have been able to witness an act of kindness from their newest friend as she gently lifted their heads to place pillows below them and threw a light blanket so it landed gently around their legs.

Sakura smiled sweetly at her job before grabbing her keys and facing the only other woman in their group, "I am going to go to one of my old "informants"...see if I can get a feel for anything. Even if there isn't it will just be a nice trip. If you can't reach me I'll be by the train station...there's a trail to the side of it."

"'k, have fun." The words were barely out of Sora's mouth before Sakura had already run out the door. Brown eyes stared after her for a moment then the brunette shrugged and went exploring the house. She contemplated for a moment going after Sakura but decided her time could be better spent in this rare slice of solitude. Even if it only lasted a few minutes.

Ten minutes had gone by and Sakura had found herself lying on a rock by the river surrounded by willows.

"So...that is strange..." A branch brushed onto her shoulder, she nodding and leaned into it, "I'm sorry I don't understand...where were they last?"

After a quick walk-through of the lower level, she returned to the kitchen to grab a drink then made her way back to one of the bedrooms. No one seemed to have claimed either yet (not that the boys had been conscious long) so she entered one at random and proceeded to settle in. Varying shades from the cool color palate adorned the walls, floor and fabric, both of the window treatments and the bedding. The gentle contrast of blues and greens brought a smile to Sora's face as she sat down on the edge of the bed and she spent a moment with her eyes closed, just breathing in the energy and feel of the new location. There was a power that hadn't been in the previous house and she could feel that it extended far beyond the grounds of this property. Neither light nor dark, merely old and immense. The sort of power that has perhaps been dormant for a very long time.

Letting her eyes open again, Sora whipped out her phone and sent a short message then pulled her bag closer so she could dig inside it for her laptop. Among other things, the bag was enchanted with an enlargement charm that allowed her to carry a nearly endless amount. A delicately made gift from a dear friend and former teacher of mystical arts.

When she had the computer case out she then proceeded to "get set up" which included running the power cord to the nearest outlet and repositioning herself and about half the bedding, as well as arranging the lighting to avoid glare and rigging the computer to accept internet access through her phone. A useful little trick from an old friend. The computer hummed to life soon after she hit the power button and the welcome screen greeted her before giving way to her desktop, after a few keystrokes to input her password. Almost immediately a couple programs sprang up but she ignored most of them, clicking on a web chat instead. As it loaded her fingers strummed lightly across the keys without hitting any as she decided what to say.

/Hey honey./ Sora typed the words out fully as she always had. /You there?/

The reply was slow in coming but she was patient and after a few minutes more text appeared on her screen. /hi/

/Can you talk?/ Sora replied back and this time the answer was quicker.

/hai/

A smile lit up the brunette's features and she moved the mouse to hit the call button. As it went through and before it could start to ring she grabbed the headphones lying beside her and plugged them in. A ring and a half before the other end answered. When they did the screen flipped first to a black screen and then to a camera. The other end was dim but a light was then turned on and slowly the image came into focus. On the other end of the call was a young brunette and she looked tired but that didn't erase the cheer also on her features.

"Hi," the pre-teen said and waved.

A smile was her first response. "Looks like you're surviving," Sora teased, gaining a quick nod. "Sorry I haven't been able to talk yet, things have been kinda hectic and we're already in a new place but you know how that goes. At least I have plenty to tell you about already. But first, what have you learned since I've been gone?"

And so began a conversation between parent and child, though they behaved far more like siblings, which would span several hours. Shortly after talk of school and general questioning over others' welfare on both ends, Sora launched into a recount of everything she knew occurred over the past couple days. She left nothing out, both because she loved retelling old adventures and because Tanya enjoyed hearing about her adopted mom's life.

Sometime in the first hour Kurama returned inside and took his own tour, peeking his head into Sora's claimed room for a moment which led to him getting a wave from both females plus well wishes from the younger. He went back to the kitchen to check if, and how well, they were stocked which wasn't much of anything, before moving to claim a room of his own. The day had been crazy and long (made even more so by the frenzied car ride) and he'd decided to partially follow his male friends' lead and rest off some of the exhaustion. He ended up in the other upstairs bedroom, not the one Sakura had unknown to him previously entered, and might have been surprised at how quickly sleep overtook him.

Yuusuke and Kuwabara were both rudely awakened by the door being, quite literally, kicked open.

The former Detective squinted at the offending sunlight peeking through the shades and curtains, shocked to see that it was morning. As if in need to prove to himself that the sun was not in the wrong, he glanced above the TV at the glowing box which read 8:30. He allowed himself a few moments to lament the fact that he was up that early before finally realizing that what woke him up was the sound of a door being kicked in. Panic surged through him but was quickly diffused by his friend calmly talking to the "intruder".

"Wait...did you wake up super early and head out to do some shopping?"

Sakura shook her head slowly and proceeded to drag herself and the shopping bag over to towards the TV. A few minutes later she plopped herself on the couch with the remote, and turned the TV on, causing a rather poppy song to fill the air. "I just got back..."

Unsure of what should worry him more, Yuusuke glanced back and forth between the American show and Sakura until he decided to take a crack at what could have possibly kept the young woman out all night, "Cheating on your husband eh?"

Sakura's eyes never left the screen, her face remained completely blank and she spoke quietly, "No...I had left to see if I could get any leads and..." Something apparently interesting happened on the screen and the young woman left her sentence where it was, her only action was leaning forward to try and become a part of what she was watching.

Both men waited for a few minutes, assuming that the young woman would continue, but it soon came quite clear to them that she was completely and utterly absorbed.

In an effort to hear any important information Sakura had gathered, Yuusuke stood and turned the TV off.

Kuwabara though, was over-come by curiosity by what his friend had in the shopping bag and slowly pulled out the three boxes. "What are these...what is...ICarly...V-Vi-cto-rious and Big Time Rush?" His accent and little understanding of the English language came through when he tried to pronounce the names printed on the thick, colorful boxes in his hands. "What the...are these American shows? Um...why are there kids and teens on the cover?"

Before he could inspect the boxes further or before Yuusuke could see them, they were ripped out of Kuwabara's hands and buried in the vice- grip of Sakura.

"Shut up...they're good..."


	7. Chapter 7

"So…what happened to you last night?"

"I found out that there is a group of interest...two humans...one unknown...apparently the humans are dangerous...so we should use caution...anyways, I picked up their trail and followed it until I stumbled upon a Wal-Mart...and I walked all the way to the Hunting section there...bought a nice new bow and target...but that's where their trail ended, so I began to walk back towards the exit...and then I heard this music...it was just too...too...fun? I guess I'll say fun to ignore...so I followed that until I ended up in their media section…in front of this...really...really big TV...and there was this show on it...so colorful...music...and just...I sat there for...about three hours? Yeah...three hours...and then I had to buy what I watched...I had to know what happened...but they didn't have the box sets there...so I had to go to another Wal-Mart...there were more episodes on the…admittedly smaller...TV there...and by the time I had bought them and left the store it was 7:30...and then the car ride was an hour and here I am now...can you please turn the TV back on?"

Striding in from the kitchen, a steaming mug in his hands, Kurama glanced over the group. Though lacking for much food, the kitchen had been stocked with plenty of tea and coffee. Green eyes paused on Sakura after a quick look at the program she had on and then he spoke. "So we're looking for two dangerous humans as well as another being we don't even know what is and you thought it would be a clever idea to track them on your own?" A short pause. "What would you have done if they'd turned around and caught you or it was just a trap?"

"I hardly believe the sources I used were aiding them...I am actually quite certain that they were all completely unaware of the fact that my sources were keeping track of them...let alone that they even exist...but thanks for trusting me to know if and when I am in danger."

While she spoke her hand dug through her pockets until they came out to shove a couple of papers into Kurama's chest.

"Here...here is where I was able to track them and what I've been able to find out about them."

Before she could say anything else that would dig her into a deeper hole Sakura pushed passed him and walked up the stairs to finally get some sleep. She couldn't help but slam the door, it was a bit over-dramatic, but being in that house made her feel like she had to be again.

"So...umm...you hungry Urameshi...I could go for some tea?" Before Kuwabara could receive an answer, he was in the kitchen making as much noise as he thought possible.

"What's with all the racket?" Sora asked between yawns as she wandered over from the direction Sakura fled. She ran a hand through her hair, for once hanging loose so that it sank past her shoulders, in a weak attempt to get out any knots. When no one answered her, she wandered over to Kuwabara's side. "What are you doing?"

Kuwabara glanced back at the brunette with a nervous smile, "Oh nothing...just trying to find something to eat...did you just wake up?" Before he heard Sora's response he shifted his gaze to the fox and detective, hoping he didn't just leave his friend behind in a bad...or even awkward situation.

Meanwhile, Yuusuke, who was trapped still in the living room, longingly stared after the brunette, jealous of her freedom and ignorance of a potentially dangerous situation.

In an attempt to act as though nothing happened, and that he wasn't trapped...just merely lazy, he called out to his friends in the kitchen, "See anything good...or should we go out and get some things?"

Silently he prayed that the latter would be true so he could simply offer to be the brave soul to rescue everyone by bringing them nourishment...hell, he'd even walk.

Though there was nervousness and fear of awkwardness and danger downstairs, upstairs was peaceful (aside from a few things tossed about) and silent while the offender finally allowed herself some semblance of sleep.

She nodded before blinking a few times to wake up. "I was up talking to Tanya for several hours then I had a few other things to check on after that, some for work and some volunteer stuff I do, so I didn't get to sleep for a long time. I think I'm only conscious now because of all the noise..." She trailed off, the hand rubbing at her eyes stopping now as she focused. "Ok, who was fighting and why? The negative energy in this house could wake an Empath from the dead..."

"You know what Urameshi, I just can't find anything suitable for our breakfast! I think I heard Sakura point out some deli or something nearby...let's go find it, get some breakfast and bring back some food!"

Before anyone could protest the idea, Yuusuke had quite literally leapt over the couch to meet Kuwabara at the door and ran outside with his friend.

Once he felt they were at a safe distance, Yuusuke leaned over to his companion with a smirk, "I still think I am going to win that $50."

: Brown eyes stared after the duo as they all but raced away for a moment before Sora turned back to the heating water Kuwabara had abandoned. "Well that was rude..." the female mumbled to herself as she grabbed a glass and mixed together a cup of tea. Carrying it gingerly between both hands, she made her way into the other room and seemed surprised to find Kurama there.

"'Morning," she told him before noticing the papers he was still looking at. "What are those?"

Only now did he acknowledge her presence, seemingly surprised in his turn that she was there while Yuusuke and Kuwabara were gone. "It seems Sakura was busy last night." He paused to collect the pages the way she'd given them to him then offered the papers to Sora. "This is all the information she says she collected, although I'd like to verify her sources before I trust them implicitly."

Taking the sheets, Sora nodded. "Well, all I know is she mentioned something about a trail by a train station when she left yesterday." Holding her cup in one hand, she tried to juggle the papers apart in the other so she could see what secrets they held other than on the front page but it wasn't working. "We could go check it out if you don't mind waiting a couple minutes for my mind to fully wake up."

When silence answered her, Sora looked up to find the room otherwise empty and her features twisted into a frown. Her proceeding response was a small sigh before taking a seat on the nearest couch to leaf through Sakura's notes.

About five minutes later, the two who had gone a-wall were slowly pulling themselves in through the doorway, their heads hanging low and their posture similar to a dog with its tail between its legs.

"We got lost...so hungry" They both managed to say in unison before turning to look at the alone Sora.

"Huh? Where'd Kurama go?" Although he was admittedly relieved, Kuwabara couldn't help but feel a twinge of worry about his friend now suddenly "missing". He was lost in this thought until the gentle sound of another door being pulled open nearby distracted him long enough to find the cause of the sound.

At the top of the stairs stood Sakura, hair completely a mess, her clothes ruffled and in improper positions and her eyes slightly glazed over as she stared into the wall ahead of her, unmoving.

"Umm...good morning? How was your...what...thirty minute sleep?"

Yuusuke turned to see what Kuwabara was speaking to only to be shocked to see a very untidy Sakura, "Why are you up?"

Slightly aware of the voices directed at her, the young woman turned towards them only to be rudely interrupted by the loud sounds coming from her stomach. She began her decent down the stairs only to miss the final step and fall into the mini dining room. Quickly though she picked herself up and began banging around in the kitchen until defeat hit her and she stumbled her way to plop face first on the couch next to her female friend.

It was pure luck that Sora was conscious enough by the time Sakura plopped on the couch to remove both her tea and the paper out of the way so that neither ended up all over the couch, floor, herself or, least worrying of all, Sakura. She hadn't yet answered the initial question presented to her by both males and still she ignored it in favor of questioning the newest person in the room. "Come on Sakura, get conscious for just a second..." She waited for a faint clue she'd been heard at all before continuing. "Tea, coffee or more sleep?"

Slowly, painfully slowly, Sakura pushed herself upwards and pulled her knees underneath her body so that she was kneeling, facing the brunette.

"Food..." She managed to grumble out before she took a deep breath and smoothed out her hair.

"Actually...just let me shower, change and then get food...so long as this is promised to me I can manage...what's up?" Apparently she had forgotten that she was now one of the people with a car and could go out to get herself something (also the fact that she was the only one who really knew the area), but she wanted the simple comfort of someone promising her something...she was still in a foul mood after all.

"Uh...yeah...sure." Yuusuke eyed Sakura warily before turning his attention back to Sora.

Ignoring Yuuske's stare, for the most part, Sora nodded to Sakura's comment. "Sure, food would be good since Spirit World forgot to supply us again."

Now that she was thinking about it, they would do well to stop at a grocery store and pick up a bunch of non-perishables since neither house had been stocked well. Maybe they should even just store them in the trunk of one of the vehicles because there wasn't much time to pack and grab stuff when they left the last house and might not be again. Some snacks to keep in the cars would work well for the long drives too…Especially if they wanted to make good time and not stop for food on the road. The brunette kept her mental list going even as she kept half her attention focused on the rest of the room around her.

Within the next ten minutes, Sakura was completely showered and dressed, feeling like she had a new lease on life, her bad mood still there, but at the back of her mind. She played with the keys in her hand, "Everyone all good to go?"

Yuusuke and Kuwabara had both taken half the time of Sakura to get ready (even though this was a record time for her), and stood at the door.

Before he opened the door though, Kuwabara, once again, voiced his concern, "Maybe we should wait for Kurama to get back?"

"Nah," Sora replied, still in her same spot on the couch. Now though, she held a thin book in one hand and a pen in the other but tucked them both away as she stood and continued speaking. "He had something he wanted to check out but he can meet us later. I'll even leave a note if you're worried, though I'd need to know where we headed so I don't send him in the wrong direction."

She stepped over to join the group and her hair bounced behind her head, where it had been pulled up while Sakura was absent. It was to the other female that she directed her next question. "So where exactly are we going anyway?"

"How does he know the area enough to check something out?" A slight shake of her head, and the thought left her, she could only hope that by answering the question posed to her, she could quickly erase their memories of what she let foolishly pass through her lips.

"There is a deli not far from here...really a five minute drive...I'll drive." The thought of future meals crossed her mind, but she shrugged it away, thinking it would be better for everyone to get groceries together to avoid any mishaps.

"Though...why don't we go into the little town...maybe get something from one of their delis...then we could eat by the gazebo...nice trees, water view...yeah...why don't we do that?"

Yuusuke was about to put in his "vote"...but something told him that Sakura wasn't asking a question. His eyes shifted and locked with those of the other male in the room, 'I guess her mood hasn't improved yet.'

As if he was reading his thoughts, Kuwabara responded with a small shake of his head before slowly following the woman in question out to the car.

Sora just offered a small nod, then turned to the wall and started writing with a pen and paper she might as well have conjured out of thin air. After a few moments of writing she paused. "How long do you think we'll be gone?"

When she got the answer, the brunette scratched a little bit more to the end of the note then folded the page in half and stuck the red head's name on one side. A quick glance around the room and then she stuck it on the nearby table before following everyone else out.


End file.
